News Release
UDM places third at ASME IShow
University of Detroit Mercy mechanical and electrical engineering programs placed third (out of 30 teams) in the fourth annual ASME Innovation Showcase (IShow) competition on Saturday, June 5th in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, securing a prize of $5,000 in seed money to further develop their product, the Stability-Enhanced Assistive Lift (SEAL).
The ASME IShow provides a platform for top collegiate teams to compete for seed money to further develop their product. These teams must demonstrate their technical creativity and the winners must prove that they have a sustainable business model to a judging panel of successful innovators, industry experts, venture capitalists, and intellectual property specialists.
Team SEAL’s members (Mark Fazi, Obafemi Osunfisan, Raymond Slowik, and Matthew Butkovich) developed a portable, intelligent lifting device (Stability Enhanced Assistive Lift) to assist people who have fallen to the floor to safely regain a standing position. Such a device has the potential to allow seniors to remain more independent in their homes, and to allow reductions in staffing costs in senior living centers. The team’s faculty advisors are Nassif Rayess (Mechanical Engineering), Sandra Yost (Electrical and Computer Engineering), and Mike Bernacchi (Marketing).
The competition scores were based on a five-page product plan and a seven-minute presentation, which was given by Fazi and Osunfisan at the IShow held in Pittsburgh. Teams from MIT and Stanford finished ahead of Team SEAL. The other seven finalists were teams from MIT, Columbia University, University of Michigan (2), Arizona State University, Santa Clara University, and Western New England University.
Release date: June 10, 2009
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